Severin

[Caltha]

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the Father of Masochism and sexual surrender, had planned on writing six volumes of erotic literature entitled The Heritage of Cain. Only the first two volumes were completed, the more famous of the two being the notorious Venus in Furs. This novel tells the tale of a man, Severin, that enters into a relationship of slavery and increasingly debauched degradation with his mistress, Wanda. Dry black teas, Earl Gray, and leather.

Severin

I got an imp of Severin in a swap with sacred_poetry.

When wet, it really does smell like Earl Grey! I guess it's the bergamot rather than the tea, so far I haven't been able to pick out any detectable tea scent but it must be there all the same since I associate tea-scents with one another. The throw is more sweet and fruity, but the overall impression is still very fresh and light and there's a scent I associate with paper - not old books or inky newspaper but clean, white paper. I guess that's actually a very light version of leather, since I don't pick up any leather. As it dries the bergamot dissappears and I get mostly the faint, fresh scent of paper. A very strict and dry scent, true to the name because it's severe, not because it's in any way perverted or sensual.
I expected this to be a much darker and stronger scent, black tea and black leather and masculine in a harsh way, but this is a gentleman in a grey suit, very discreet and polite and to be honest not handsome or charismatic either, just a middle-aged, thin gentleman who sips his pale Earl Grey and reads his newspaper in his favourite armchair in the mansion. It might be in his not-so-fancy but very tidy urban apartment as well and he might not even be rich, just well educated, well dressed and well behaved.
Actually, this could be Giles' scent, if Giles didn't have hot dates. I quite like it because it's fresh and light and yet nothing like the ordinary fresh and light scents. I will try it again and apply more liberally next time, and I will most likely keep the imp. Who knows, perhaps I'll slowly fall in love with it and end up buying a bottle? Edited September 6, 2005 by Caltha

[~AmusedMuse~]

Lovely tea & citrus. I cant detect the leather though The tea gives it a little bit of spiciness to the scent and it is quite light and lovely. My scale of 1-5...4+

[LiberAmoris]

Sexy Earl Grey! I can't believe I waited so long to try Severin, it's positively criminal.

 

The leather note here is divine. I wish the lemon note hung around a little longer, but I really can't complain, as the scrummy Earl Grey note lasts forever on my skin.

 

Severin strikes me as Dorian's older brother in a distressed black leather jacket. There's nothing submissive about him to me!

[DarkMouse]

In the Bottle: Its Earl Gray Tea! Yummy.. It smells just like I opened a teabag of Bigelow Earl Gray and was about to put it into my teacup.

 

On my skin: Earl Gray tea - mainly the bergamot part of the tea.. and leather.. Not new car smell, but DeSade leather. This is sooooo good! (and sexy too!) OK -this is definitely a "Big Bottle" scent. Wow.. I haven't been this taken with a catalog scent since Scherezade and Absinthe (Come to think of it.. those are the only two catalog scents I currently have an obsession with)

 

Verdict: if you love the smell of Earl Gray and leather.. this should be your next purchase/hunt. its AMAZING. YUM!!

[shayelea]

In the bottle: The more I smell it in the bottle, the more I smell lemon. There's leather, of course, but the lemon comes out the most. Maybe a faint whiff of tea in the background.

 

Wet: As soon as I put this on, it reacted with my body chemistry in such a way that it smelled of...well...it was like rancid Irish Spring soap. It made me really nauseous, and I had to wash it off. I bet if I was able to make it to drydown, the tea would come out, but it just wasn't happening for me with this one.

[lohengrin]

In the bottle: Citrus. Definitely citrus.

 

On, wet: Yup, citrus.

 

5 minutes: Ah, now the tea is coming through somewhat. Smells like Earl Grey and little else. Old fashioned Earl Grey, with bergamot. No leather to be found, that's for sure. But I like it anyway.

 

10 minutes: I smell like Earl Grey, yup. ^^; Very nice, but a bit disappointing on the leather part -- will have to try Whip after all.

 

1 hour+: Ah, there's a faint hint of leather. Very faint. The Earl Grey scent is faint now, too. But still there. Still gonna try Whip sometime.

[Ailine]

I love Severin for the twenty minutes it lasts on me. It burns down quickly to nothing, but while it's around I get lots of lovely tea.

 

I'm contemplating layering my imp with Dorian to see what that would do to it. Sometimes I feel like Dorian loses the tea too quickly in a sea of vanilla fougere, so maybe this would be an excellent use for it.

[inbigtrouble]

Severin is such a beautiful, clean, sexy scent. It was love at first sniff for me upon opening the vial.

 

Severin is a simple scent on me, and it doesn't morph on me, either. I get the scent of refreshing, light orange tea, nothing more. I usually hate scents with leather in them, but this is perfect. I know the leather must be there adding a hint of naughtiness, but I can't detect it.

 

Sadly, this fades quickly into nothingness on me. At first, I thought I'd like a big bottle, but not if I can't smell it after 45 minutes.

[lookingglass]

The fresh tea and bergamot from the Earl Grey is full of tangy tannins. Drying down I get the raw, black, hot, snapping leather. I'm giving this one to the man...

Edited August 22, 2013 by lookingglass

[stardust]

Frimp from the Lab!

 

I had actually tried this one before, and passed it along. I decided to give it another whirl, and I'm so glad I did.

 

This smells sharply of bergamot at first, with the astringency of tea. The leather is faint at first, and warms the blend. While the leather became stronger upon wearing, it still remained in the background. It is kind of a library-ish scent; tea and leather chairs. This makes it the perfect scent for a nerd like me.

 

I smell like a really hot guy, and I kind of want to jump myself. I must test this on my husband, soon.

 

The only bad thing is that this does fade quickly, but I have a bottle headed my way, nevertheless.

[jewelbug]

Imp: Tea with lemon. Mmmmm…I love tea.

 

Me:

Wet: Stays true to the tea with lemon smell. Very fresh and clean. The earl grey is unmistakable.

Drying: The lemon is super strong during the drying phase.

When its dry, the lemon calms down and its earl grey again, with a lemon twist. Clean, fresh, and an amazingly accurate blend representation of the tea. I don't get the leather. Just the tea. It's wonderful. It lasts about 1:45 min before it fades away completely

 

Him: same great early grey smell, but its gone in about 30 min.

 

Overall: This is a very light happy scent. I love it--it’s the most amazing earl grey and lemon smell, and I wish it were drinkable! But the lack of staying power pushes it off my "must have" list.

[aedes]

Well I love Earl Gray tea, so I had to try this. Yeah, not working on me. It starts off barely there except for a piercing, crystaline, chemical sort of smell. Like a Lemon Pine Sol or hairspray or something. Not a "get it off me! get it off me!" scent, but almost. Like inhaling broken glass. Very strange. That was for about 10 minutes, then nothing. Sorry, Severin! No room in the inn for you tonight.

[harmonyfb]

In the bottle: Lemony!

 

Wet: Exactly like Lemon Pledge.

 

Drydown: Like somebody set a cup of hot tea down on a table that I just dusted with Lemon Pledge.

 

Dry, an hour later: Wow. No Lemon Pledge-ness at all; this is a warm leather and swirly hot tea scent. This, I like. I don't know if I can stand to go through the Lemon Pledge phase to get to it, though, especially when I like "White Rabbit" better from the get-go.

[bodegaselkie]

Severin was included as a free imp in my last lab order, and I'm happy that it was because I seem to have good success with the love potions and I really liked Embalming Fluid (but my partner didn't, so I gave it to a friend) and ALMOST liked Dorian (too sweet, too musky) and ALMOST liked Perversion (the wine note just doesn't work on me). I like tea scents a lot (heck, I like tea a lot), and this combination of tea, bergamot and leather is just beautiful. I, like others, wish it had more staying power -- on me it's already fading after an hour. But it's lovely. I suppose I'll keep re-applying today and decide whether it's worth that kind of effort.

[Orodemniades]

Hmm, lemon with a twist of alcohol that grows stronger as it dries. I'm not getting any tea or leather, but I really like this. Must make Mr Oro wear it

 

Oro

[coulrophobe]

This one is very lemony on me, with hints of tea and leather (and luckily, the lemon is fresh, and not the dreaded "lemon Pledge" type). However - this is the quickest-fading BPAL blend I've encountered. 10 minutes after applying, I can't even smell it - usually blends with leather last on my skin, but this one does not. Too bad, because it smelled promising.

[malanna]

When I first put this on, this mostly smells of black tea and sugared lemon (it reminds me of White Rabbit, but sweeter and yummier). After a while, there's some leather peaking out while the sugared lemon recedes. It's not apparent, just hiding in the background. The leather comes out a bit more. This leather is a refined, soft, home-comfort sort of leather. It's quite pleasant, but this gets too faint after the initial black tea/sugared lemon scent. Everything is too light and indistinct. Still, this is quite lovely.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Zesty orange-peel and black tea leaves, heavily aromatic. Smoky, slightly animalistic smell of leather mingles in the background.

 

On me: Light tea fragrance, slightly sweetened with a citrus peel. Very faint on my skin, the blend fades almost immediately, leaving behind the faintest hints of leather and a cup of tea leaves steeped in water. Very pretty, but it doesn't last long enough for me to justify keeping it.

[theseagrows]

omg omg omg i am in love! with severin.

 

it smells like tea, lemons and leather just like it says, with the lemon and leather coming out strongest. it *is* a bit masculine, but i think leathery scents on a woman can be really sexy. even more so than on a man. so that being said, this one may become one of my favorites. i dont find the leather to be of the 'dusty old book' variety like some have said. i think it's a much more sexy leather and i think the name severin goes perfect with this scent. i must get a big bottle of this.

[silver_springs]

Holy Citrus! That was my first thought and it stayed that way for a few minutes. All lemon.

 

Cut to a few minutes later and much more calmed. But still all I'm getting citrus, I'm not getting any leather or anything else.

 

I didn't hate Severin. But I just don't like lemon enough. I can stand a light citrus scent but not this much. I was really looking forward to trying it out, and I'm glad I did but it's simply not me.

 

Off to the swap pile will hopefully in the future it'll find a better home.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

I thought it would be cute to have this for Brian to wear when I'm wearing Wanda. But I get to try it first!

 

A bright citrus topnote (that would be the Earl Grey bergamot) opens over black tea. It smells like White Rabbit with...less stuff in it. Ok, that's not a great review, but the leather doesn't want to come out and play with me. However, it's really nice on Brian. He does get a hint of leather and likes how the topnotes stays fresh on him. So, as expected, Severin is off to live in the Boy Imp Box.

Edited January 14, 2006 by Laurel the Woodfairy

[Silverstrike]

Let me preface this review by saying that I've never had Earl Grey tea, so I don't know what it smells like. That said, Severin is supposed to be black teas, Earl Gray and leather; I get an antiseptic note from it though, kind of green--maybe this is the leather? It's not unpleasant, and doesn't turn into something icky as it dries down, but it's not necessarily something I want to wear. Clean light fresh scent though.

[targeter]

In the imp - lemon. Pleasant, crisp lemon.

On my wrist, wet - definitely still lemon, with a faint hint of floral sweetness in the background...almost a jasmine, but hovering on the edges. I think that the crisp edge to it might be the tea...and, you know, I could be completely off and be smelling bergamot instead of lemon. That might make a bit more sense. Quite a pleasant smell, really, just not what I was expecting it to be.

Dry - I'm definitely not smelling the leather, but I think I'm getting more of the tea scent. The citrus note (whatever it is) is definitely the dominant one with the tea lurking gently in the background. Very nice, though it fades away completely in about 30 minutes or so. I have to put my nose up to my wrist to get a hint of it at all.

 

Overall - a lovely, crisp, clean scent without a lot of throw. Something to wear if you want a brief pick-me-up of scent in the morning without smelling like it the entire day....or bring an imp and reapply throughout the day.

[czuba]

Like Dorian, I intially bought an imp off this, but never posted a review. Now that I have a larger bottle, I getting around to sitting down and going through my scents and making notes on them.

 

In the Bottle: Strong, almost harsh, citrus with the faints notes of tea. (I have to do the inhaling through the nose with my mouth open to pick up any of the tea).

 

On my Skin Wet: Very strong Earl Grey, especially the bergamot. After a few minutes as it starts to dry I pick up hints of leather in the undertones.

 

 

On my Skin Dry: The Earl Grey is still there, but has mellowed to more of the tea scent. The leather is more obvious. There is also something sweet in the undertones now.

 

I tend to wear Severin when I want to feel powerful which is odd for a scent named after a sub.

[Sheila]

Because I'm going through a lemon phase right now, I was very eager to try this. It came as a giftimp in my last order--thanks, lab, you read my mind!

 

On wet, it has the lovely lemon-and-tea scent I've been craving lately. As it dries, however, the leather comes out more strongly, making this a bit masculine on me. It's very posh and sophisticated, though, and would be soooo sexy on a man. I'm going to keep the imp for my DH.